A former hospital worker convicted of kidnapping and raping an 8-year-old boy as he walked home from school was sentenced to 130 years to life in prison.
Darwin Felix Alfelor, 35, of North Hollywood was found guilty of five criminal counts, including kidnapping to commit another crime and forcible lewd act on a child under 10. Jurors also found true the special allegations that Alfelor used a handgun and that he committed aggravated kidnapping.
Alfelor, who had been employed as a temporary worker at several Southern California hospitals, kidnapped the boy at gunpoint on June 13, 2007, near Atoll Avenue and Victory Boulevard in Van Nuys. The boy had been walking home from school with a baby sitter, but ran ahead because he wanted to say goodbye to his father before he went to work.
Alfelor drove the boy to an isolated spot, sexually assaulted him and abandoned him in North Hollywood, 2 miles from the boy's home.
Using DNA evidence, authorities were able to identify Alfelor as the boy's assailant last February. At the time, Alfelor was serving a prison sentence for a 2007 robbery conviction.
The juror recalled that the boy, now 12, gave gut-wrenching" testimony during the trial and broke down into quiet sobs. Members of the six-woman, nine-man panel, who have kept in touch through e-mail, donated the stipends they received for jury duty to the victim.
Alfelor showed no emotion throughout the trial or as Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Lippett handed down the sentence. He was also ordered to pay $10,000 in restitution to the boy.
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